From the evening of 18 March 2020, Milan Duomo will be covered in light until Easter, with the turning on of the so-called “gala lighting”. Normally, this lighting is only used on public holidays. By decision of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, this will now be seven days a week, lighting up the night in Milan and representing a sign of positivity, confidence and encouragement for the city in this difficult and painful moment.

Indeed, many people, while staying at home, look for the Cathedral from their windows, through the numerous online webcams or in news images.

With a message of light that will accompany us until the Lord’s Passover, the domus of all Milanese thus confirms, once again, its participation in its centuries-old history, in the city’s events that built one of the most splendid monuments to ingenuity and to Lombard creativity.

This lighting calls for the turning on of the perimeter system and of the upper part of Duomo, including the roofs and spires, with over 500 LED floodlights, allocated on the Cathedral’s Rooftops and distributed on surrounding poles and buildings.

The system was inaugurated on 20 December 2018. The project, overseen by Engineer Pietro Palladino and approved by the Milan Fine Arts and Landscape Authority, was the result of an agreement drawn up by the Veneranda Fabbrica with the Municipality of Milan and A2A to enhance the Cathedral’s external lighting.

This technology also permits an extreme reduction in energy use: in fact, the new system has seen annual electricity consumption drop by 52% compared to the previous one, saving 23,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Stay at home, but stay united.